Carrick U17’s lived up for their second outing of the year missing two of their most of their influential players in Matty Fisher and back line supremo Sam Wallace are both out injured. Such is the strength of the squad that neither omission fazed this successful side. Portadown in Royal blue travelled with confidence to the home of the Ulster Champions complete with video technology to record the day’s proceedings. Unfortunately for the visitors the picture was decidedly black after only a few minutes with the red army of Carrick swarming all over their defensive lines. Jake Porter at Ten directed the operations in Wallace’s absence and John Stewart and his forwards battered the Ports line.
At half-time Carrick had already chalked up 4 tries, 2 through Ian Kerr who seemed to pop up everywhere; lineout star, ball carrying star and try-scorer. His second row partner Matty Best weighed in with one and Neil Beggs physical presence told when he blasted over for a fourth. A conversion by Conor Cambridge and one by Jamie McCracken made it 24-0 on the half. Coach McTeggart asked for more physicality second half and into the breeze his team provided it and Captain John Stewart scored two great support tries and Jake Porter showed his talent as an out-half outsmarting Portadown to score at the posts. Cambridge converted.
Conor Cambridge continued to send a steady stream of great passes to Porter and from a fabulous counter attack involving Cambridge, Porter, John Turner and Jake Gardner and finished in style by lightning winger Thomas O’Callaghan. This passage had the crowd on their feet as Portadown were left singing the Blues but they also played their part in a strong defensive effort which will stand them in good stead for their season ahead.
Next stop away to Malone for the in-form reds. Great rugby in store next week at Gibson Park.
Final score: Carrick 43-0 Portadown.
At U15s level, Carrick travelled to Randalstown for the second of their early season friendlies. Randalstown are now a well established Youth section and Carrick knew this would not be an easy fixture. Both coaching teams agreed to play three 20 minutes sessions and it was Carrick who started the better with Matty Justin powering over for an early score. Randalstown however were not to be intimidated and their slick backline quickly responded with no less than 3 scores of their own before the end of the first period of play. In the second period of play Randalstown capitalised on a number of unforced errors from the Carrick side and raced into a 29-5 lead at the end of the second period of play. To their credit Carrick dug deep in the final passage of play and scored a super try with Evan Sloan touching down. Randalstown themselves got one more touch down leaving the final score 34-12 to the home side. The young Carrick side can be pleased with some facets of their play, in particular their offloading game, but the harsh lesson to be learnt is the necessity for ball retention at the breakdown. A significant number of turnovers cost Carrick dearly. On a more positive note it was good to see Jordan Robinson back in a Carrick jersey and stand out performances from Owen Hunter and Jordan Devenney bowed well for the future.
Final Score: Randalstown U15s 34 Carrick U15s 12
Man of Match for Carrick: Owen Hunter
At U13s level Carrick lost 22-7 to a well drilled and organised Portadown side. The only score for Carrick came from Josh Beasant. hEads up and lets look forward to Malone next week.
